Having soldered them into the holes before cutting the return cranks out I idly wondered just how small hex bolts I could make without wasting lots of material by cutting them from thicker stock. So, I cut a short length of 0.9mm nickel rod and was again surprised that my 3-jaw gripped it. I increased the speed again to approx. 2000 rpm (my lathe supposedly goes to 2500 rpm but I didn’t have it on full speed).

On the first try, I had a little too much stick out and almost immediately the end of the rod bent away from the cutting tool. Undeterred I snipped the bent end off and tried again with roughly 5mm stick out. Using a very light touch to allow the speed of rotation and the sharpness of the tool to do most of the work I was able to reduce the stock from 0.9mm to 0.5mm again I did both ends and transferred it to the pin vice for finishing.

I made a few more just to confirm that the first two weren’t just a fluke.

They do need a touch more finishing with a file to reduce the depth of the head to something more bolt like but that’s the easy bit. The more difficult bit will be holding them and fitting them into holes without them pinging off into the ether…